


Away

by Baltic_Breath



Category: Smosh
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mental Instability, Platonic Kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 11:44:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20966012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baltic_Breath/pseuds/Baltic_Breath
Summary: Glück {n} im Unglück (ger): having a series of unfortunate events turn around to be better than expected, being in an uncompromising position and coming out unscathed; a blessing in disguise [idiom]Damien loses his friends and gets himself into trouble and in turn finds some other friends and gets the love of his life back.





	Away

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys! 
> 
> I'm fairly new to Smosh and this year's summer games have inspired me to make an AU out of it.  
I've tried to incorporate some of the group dynamics from the videos but it was quite difficult, so it's mostly free form.  
At first this was supposed to be a long oneshot but my bitch ass can't contain her writing so it's expanding into a three part story! 
> 
> a few MINOR WARNINGS for this chapter: there's a few slightly yucky descriptions of zombies and rotting flesh I guess? but nothing bad, mentions of starving, implied murder and implied mental health issues
> 
> my writing still is kinda minimal I'd say so there's never really anything majorly bad or sad described for long
> 
> this is written as realistically as I can imagine a zombie apocalypse, so don't expect too much action lol
> 
> shits only going downhill real fast next chapter so have fun reading!

The thing is, an apocalypse isn't as loud or chaotic as you would imagine it is. Especially a zombie apocalypse. Damien always thought the streets would be overrun immediately, houses destroyed in a matter of days, nothing and nowhere safe to stay longer than a few hours before monsters would find you.

But the truth is, in real life zombies are just dead, mindless sacks of meat that have rotten organs and decaying muscles and - with that shit you really can't do much, can you?

If you're barricaded well enough and try to stay low and quiet, you can make it for a long time. It actually doesn't happen very often that _suddenly_ a big group of zombies hyperfocuses on you from a mile away and comes crashing your house in a matter of seconds like in films and series. It's all a bunch of unrealistic crap.

It does so happen, that zombies have pretty good senses of smell and hearing, the last senses that start to rot away. Other than that, though - they can't do shit. They're pretty useless after about the first 6 hours of death when rigor mortis sets in. After a few days their muscles can't keep themselves supported anymore and they give their last effort crawling on the ground and losing limbs left and right. Obviously, they don't usually come far, considering their eyesight decayed way before rigor mortis stopped and they only have a miniscule timeframe to even do any damage before their bodies are ultimately useless.

All in all, Damien expected a lot more from the apocalypse and honestly, he's a little disappointed. He's been living in this post apocalyptic world for almost two years now.

He's still sad that after about a week of society collapsing into itself in hysteria, electricity and internet had copped out. He'd had enough time to gather basic survival knowledge and text most of his friends and family that he was well and that they should watch out for themselves. He didn't get a lot of answers back, and he'd tried not to get hung up on that fact. Instead he stuck to those that did respond and tried to get them all to meet in a safe place.

It was surprisingly hard, trying to come together to build a group. Infrastructure was done for, people had to walk for long periods of time and avoid zombies on their ways, big streets and open places were blocked and sometimes it was just hard to stay in one place long enough to wait for someone to make it too. Not to mention those that simply didn't want to group up or that maybe died on their way.

Damien had gotten a hold of Noah, Keith and Courtney before the internet had shut down. He had gotten first responses from most of the Smosh crew, but they thinned out over the week or the people already had other groups to stay with, their families and children and spouses. Some had tried to make it in time but have never gotten to them before Damien's group had to leave their last meeting point. Damien was seriously concerned for most of them and hoped every day that they somehow would make it to them eventually.

He was especially concerned about Shayne. He had only gotten first response from him, saying his home was really not safe from day one and that he had to move a lot because he was always unlucky with his safe spaces. Damien had tried to forward him as much important tips for survival in his next text as possible but he never got the indication that Shayne had even read it. It was incredibly hard not to get hung up on this particular person after the contact broke off. He never stopped worrying.

"You know, I've heard some rumors", Courtney began next to Damien while they raided a late family house on the outskirts of LA for resources, her long fighting knife loosely swinging in her left hand, Damien's elbow in her right, "about a small town building out in the desert. People are starting to get scared about raiders taking over LA and want to get away. Also: no zombies where no people lived before."

Damien hummed thoughtfully, mulling the idea over in his head. It was true, after the initial chaos and the following regrouping of survivors, a few bigger raider groups had crystallized that had a lot of tactics, a lot of spread and a lot of power. Now, after a good few months of raiding empty houses and sourcing everything that was left in a half dead city, survivors started to go against each other, big groups naturally against smaller groups. Surviving was a cruel game.

Damien stopped their steps near a closed door and automatically, they both got quiet and listened. For a few seconds there was nothing and Courtney almost wanted to grab for the handle, but Damien stopped her and popped his tongue loud enough to hear on the other side, just in case. As expected, shortly after there was shuffling and scraping right at the door, against the wood on the bottom, and Courtney sighed deeply.

"Good thought, Day. That could've been pretty bad."

Damien nodded with a small smile on his face. "Of course, Court. That's why we're a team, I'm the brains and you're the brawn."

Back in their safehouse, the four of them found that their success was rather meek. It had become their day-to-day life that bigger groups were getting more aggressive and more spread out in their raidings, not leaving behind much. What they could raid in different spots in one day was barely enough to feed them all at the end of it.

More often than not, they entertained the idea of leaving the city and finding a place far out with enough resources, a farm or ranch or maybe even an abandoned food factory. But most of the time they came to the conclusion that it was too big a risk to take without enough resources for the journey and without an actual chance that there is in fact still something out there that wasn't already raided empty, dilapidated or squatted in.

And on the other side, there were still all their missing crew members. It felt wrong to just leave when there had been so many of them that had wanted to meet up but just hadn't made it in time, that weren't found yet or that they didn't know anything about. The unknown tore apart all of them internally when they were alone with their thoughts.

Most often, Damien was kept awake at night by the thought of Shayne. Not one of his friends had left his conscious mind in all the time that had passed, but his best friend had always been the one on the forefront. He had lost the most important person in his life of eight years with a simple text of _'lol im scared gtg save my own ass from impending death'_ and as hilarious that might've been otherwise, their new world left him aching for something way out of his grasp.

Damien wasn't one to be dishonest to himself; he really fucking missed his best friend. He couldn't even entertain the idea of Shayne's death, it evoked a distinctly primal fear in him that made his muscles tense and his anxiety shoot through the roof. He just wanted to be able to have Shayne in his arms again and know he would be alright. It was what kept him going, even when they were barely surviving.

Their supplies were dwindling down as the weeks went by and everywhere they went to raid there was less and less to find every time. It was getting risky where they stayed, Damien gave up all the food they had for the other three since they were all more on the lean side and he still had enough own mass to burn off before it got dangerous for him. Even though nobody spoke up about it yet, they all knew it was getting too close to nothing for them to survive much longer.

They had to move.

As a last ditch effort, Damien suggested they should try raiding a big mall a little way away from where their usual route radius went. He knew from before the apocalypse that this specific mall had a big food court and also a few more supermarkets and grocery stores than a usual mall, if he remembered correctly maybe even one specifically for canned goods. The other three agreed, but only under the condition that they would move if they didn't find enough to last at least a week.

With a heavy heart and bitter understanding, he agreed.

They almost immediately prepared to leave because they didn't have anything to lose by then. On their way they tried to keep a casual conversation going, but they all were nervous and hungry wrecks and the air between them was filled with guilt and stress and the whole situation made it hard to keep it light, even though they would never lash out at each other.

"Hey, Day", Noah started hesitantly after a few minutes of silence between them except their crunchy footsteps on gravelly backyard paths and unknown alleyways, and Damien grunted in answer, "I know we're trying our best to stay where we are so we don't leave behind anyone and, and I want that too, I really do, and - I _understand_ that you're missing someone really important that I for one still have right here with me on a daily."

Noah sighed deeply and Damien winced a little, Courtney's hand on his elbow tightened and Keith let out a little coo directed at Noah. Damien sees that Noah's struggling with how to convey what he wants to say when he looks at him.

"But. It's getting really dangerous. Even if we find enough food in this mall, who can guarantee that we'll be this lucky again next week? Or the week after that? How much longer can we keep expanding our routes, how much more _effort_ can we put into getting supplies just to keep staying at the same place?"

Damien could clearly hear how much time had gotten into that thought process of Noah's, how much worry and concern and logic, and Damien couldn't even get himself to argue because he knew Noah was right. Damien was clinging to the last bits of hope and nostalgia and it was getting ridiculous, he knew, and he was trying to adjust and accept that fact. But he was giving himself this one last chance.

"I know. I've thought about it enough. It's just -", Damien started, and they had this conversation so many times already, always in different ways and volumes and emotional states, and he kind of knows this is the last time.

"I'm just really fucking scared. We're here, we're safe together, we have our day-to-day life together as a group and we know what's out here around us. It's hard to leave that safety, especially when our safehouse is the last the others know about us. It's hard."

Courtney agreed, and Damien even heard some hums from Noah and Keith, and even though they all had more to say on this topic, it stopped there. They were all tired and scared and didn't know what they would do after today. It truly was hard, but it was harder to talk about it and make actual decisions.

When they arrived at the mall, Damien was surprised there weren't many zombies around. Usually big places that a lot of people knew before were central spots for zombie masses because everyone working or visiting or living around there died and everyone else got the genius idea to go where people would be and died there too. Damien got suspicious but gave the situation the benefit of the doubt.

The four of them split up in the usual duos, went over the usual rules and decided who would go for which stories. Courtney wanted to continue her usual schtick and intertwine her and Damien's arms but this time he asked her if they could stay separated. He was too on-edge to make them vulnerable like that. In the matter of quick decisions a second arm could save your life.

Keith and Noah went for downstairs and the basement, Damien and Courtney went for upstairs, the food court and if there was, the attic. They didn't know if anything would be locked up or not, but Damien just hoped nobody got the chance to close up any shops before the hysteria went down. Going up the stopped escalators, Damien saw why there were no zombies around the entrance and in front of the mall.

They were all clustered methodically in front of every shop, crawling on the ground and blocking every way and entrance.

Damien's suspicion levels shot through the roof immediately. This wasn't natural behavior for zombies. They didn't stick together and they didn't react to each other's scent or sounds. Someone had to have baited them all to where they were right now so that no one was able to get around and raid.

"Shit, Damien, what now?", Courtney hissed quietly into his ear as to not alert any crawlers or the last few of the walkers in between.

Walkers. Someone had to have been here not long ago to have walkers still here. That's fucked up.

Damien thought quickly and leaned into Courtney's ear, never taking his eyes off the zombie masses.

"Those are traps. People are guarding what is in those shops, meaning they aren't raided empty yet. There must still be a lot when they make so much effort to trap up everything. And this amount of complex zombie traps is also a lot of work which takes a lot of people. This is a big fucking deal, Court."

Damien thought a bit more while Courtney quietly cursed.

"There are still walkers around here and not a lot of immobile crawlers, meaning whoever did this renewed their traps not long ago. Which gives us a few options on how they work: Either they trust the traps work well enough and won't come back for the next day until all walkers have deteriorated and they need to get new ones, or they don't trust the traps work well enough and come back every few hours to check up on the state of the traps and shops, maybe even have their safehouse somewhere in this mall."

Courtney looked at him like she was lost, desperate. She fingered her fighting knife nervously. "So, what are we gonna do?"

Damien tried measuring the risks and chances that they could get out of this unharmed, and they didn't look that good. The most they had to fight off in the abandoned houses they usually raided were one or two crawlers, maybe dodge a walker on their way home. This was a whole nother caliber of danger. But, he thought, it was probably worth it for what was in those stores.

Damien sighed anxiously. "I think we take the chance. For this much trap work there has to be a lot of stuff in there. I'm gonna go try alerting the zombies so they leave their places and you try to get around them and into the stores, alright?"

Damien looked at Courtney with all the seriousness he could muster, because he knew she would try to argue. Courtney just wasn't someone to leave behind their friends, she was like a golden retriever in that way. She probably wouldn't even leave him when they were trapped and one of them could escape. Which is why he had to convey to her how much was on the scale right now.

"No, Damien, you -"

"Courtney. Do you trust me? Because I trust you enough to know you'll be able to pull that off better than me. You're good at dodging zombies, I'm good at diverting them. This will work. Please."

They held a troubled eye contact for a few seconds in which they said nothing. They were both scared for the other, but they were also both desperate. They went all this way out to this mall to raid and even though it was a tough match, they couldn't afford going back empty handed. Soon enough one of them would not be able to work well enough on their malnutrition and that would be the beginning of their end. They had to take the risk.

"Ah, alright. Of course, I trust you. I trust you to the moon and back, dummy. But I'm scared anyway. This is a big ass bunch of undead. Please, _please_ watch out for yourself." Courtney seemed close to tears, and Damien nodded, a new determination in his heart. For a short second, Courtney pressed her lips to Damien's, grabbing his forearms almost painfully, but he knew it wasn't romantic. It was a promise, a heartfelt promise that at the end of this, they would be together again, a promise not able to be conveyed in any other way.

When they separated, they both nodded again, looking each other in the eyes for another second before they went their separate ways, Damien going a few ways into the direction of the mall where the stores weren't guarded and Courtney went around a corner where she could easily press herself against the wall and slip into the nearest shop.

Damien's heart raced, knowing in what kind of danger he was bringing them both, but he knew he had to pull through. He already planned out his escape route, at the end of the mall where the two sides of the upstairs story came together in a half circle, there was another pair of stopped escalators and stairs. He could easily get the crawlers to crawl there by sound and then quietly slip down, but the walkers were a little trickier, some of them could still see and smell pretty well. He needed to take that risk and maybe have to take some down.

He made eye contact with Courtney one more time to see if she was ready, and when she nodded, he nodded back and got ready to run. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted as loud as he could to alert even the far away zombies, and he immediately got a reaction from most of them. They all looked his direction and started to move as a mass in the most disturbing way Damien had ever seen. Walkers trampled crawlers on their quest to get to the source of the sound, crushing their spine or head while stepping on them and rendering them useless or dead, but most of them were still on their way to him.

Damien caught a last glimpse of a horrified Courtney before he had to walk backwards and keep an eye on the zombies.

Damien had to admit, he's never ever heard anyone make such a loud noise around zombies since the start of the apocalypse, and now he remembered why. Loud noises made them a lot more active than quiet noises. The crawlers were making their way to him almost at the same pace a walker would roam around a street following the chirping of birds, and the walkers were doing a decent speed walk over to him. For a second his heart sank, thinking of the possibility of them being able to _run_, but it didn't turn out that way.

He kept making noises now and then on his way back when the zombies lost their sense of why they were moving. In his peripheral he saw Courtney tiptoeing past the last few crawlers around the shops and slip inside the first one.

By now, the zombies had come to form not a few small groups but one big group coming at him. Damien tried to keep as close to them as possible before he brought distance between them and made new noises, but the walkers were getting to be dangerously closer every time he did it. Killing some off wasn't an option yet, if he got distracted like that the more of them would close in on him and it would be the end. He wasn't really as good at killing them as Courtney, he needed a few seconds to decide on a tactic and see what the zombie would do, Courtney just went for it by instinct.

When he was about halfway to the circled end of the mall, he saw that most of the zombies had passed the escalators the two of them had taken originally. He had lost a few of them on the way, probably the ones that didn't have the best of hearing anymore, but they would probably not be a big risk for Courtney. There was enough space for her to dodge and avoid them while raiding shop after shop.

Damien let out one last shout to be really sure the last zombies would pass the escalators and then he tried to be as silent as possible when backing away. The walkers were still dangerously close, but Damien crouched behind a few big plant pots standing around to get them off his sight. After about a minute of aimless walking, the zombies senses failed them and they slowly came to a halt, walking in weird circles where they stood. It was truly disturbing to see them searching for him like this, so many, so up close. It was a big fucking risk he had taken.

Slowly and silently, Damien started his rest of the way to the escalators. He stayed crouched to avoid being detected by the last walkers with sight, and with a last sweep of his gaze around the top story, he made his way down to loop back around to the original escalators. Courtney couldn't do the whole raiding by herself, she needed another few hands and another few bags.

Back down he saw Keith and Noah standing at their meeting point, looking scared out of their minds, and when they saw him, they both crouched down and put their heads on their arms, probably relieved as all hell that he was alright after all the screaming they heard. Damien actually laughed for a second, adrenaline rush slowly dying down, and he jogged over to them to quickly hug them and check up on them. He explained their situation upstairs and got a few soft punches for terrifying them like that.

Keith and Noah hadn't found anything downstairs. Everything was empty. There weren't even any zombies. Damien guessed the people keeping the traps going brought everything upstairs to minimize the traps they had to keep intact. Upstairs were also more escape routes and ways to avoid the walkers after the traps were renewed. It made sense.

The three of them made their way back upstairs together, still wary of the few trickles of zombies right behind them where Damien had led them, and stealthed their way through the senseless ones standing in their way to check in which store Courtney was.

Looking into the stores, the shelves were all neatly packed with supplies. Canned and shrink-wrapped and dried up foods, everything that was nonperishable and had long shelf life. Sometimes there was even other usables, new pots and kitchen ware and garden utensils and a lot more useful stuff. Damien wasn't sure but maybe he even saw some clothes.

This was crazy.

And slowly, in his mind, their luck was overshadowed by doubt. Keith and Noah were all over the place when they spotted Courtney, who had an equally excited face on while she was stuffing her bags with supplies, and they joined her immediately. Damien stayed back, finally letting himself think who exactly would be able to pull off such a big complex trap stunt, and his heart sank.

It could only be one of the big raider groups. Well organized, many people, ruthless.

And they were going to know who stole their stuff. And they were for sure going to target them.

Damien forced himself to take a deep breath and follow his friends to gather up resources. He was quick and methodically, took the most nutritional and long lasting supplies, everything that they could hold onto long and get the most out of. He tried to ignore how his hands shook while he sorted everything into his bags and how excited the other three were that they for once could enjoy a good ass meal and even some snacks. Damien hated that he had to destroy that for them.

"Guys, I think as soon as we're done here, we have to prepare to leave the city."

Around them the air suddenly turned stale. After a few seconds the rustles of bag and the last laughs trickled away and the silence set in. Damien couldn't even get himself to look at them. He heard Courtney's voice break away before she even asked him. "Ah, what? Why?"

Keith sounded unbelievably insecure. "Yeah, uh. You were so, you were so against it before?"

Damien took a deep breath to explain his thoughts, but before he could start, a deep cranking sound was heard from far away, Damien immediately thought the other side of the mall. The cranking repeated, before a loud shattering thump. A big heavy metal door being opened and falling closed. Damien saw everyone flinch hard and then have every emotion fall out of their face before panic set in. There was someone coming.

Damien immediately ripped his bags from himself and shoved them in the others' arms. "You three take the staff back rooms out of here, there's always a way to get out from there. I'm gonna go deflect - no, don't argue, I'm gonna be fine, this was all my idea so I'm gonna do this. Go!" Damien shoved them in the direction of the back of the shop to make his point clear, before he grabbed for an extra weapon from one of the lower shelves. He had a knife, but who knew what he would be expecting soon.

There were far off voices and quiet footsteps, but they were coming their direction. There wasn't much time for the others to talk much more.

"Damien, I swear to god, if you don't make it back to us -", Courtney hissed loud enough so he could hear her, but he had to sober her up quickly. They didn't have time for this.

"If I don't make it back to you, you do _not_ wait for me. Get the _fuck_ out of this city, go for the desert city, as soon as possible. I'm gonna meet you there eventually if I can't make it in time. Now _leave!_"

Courtney gave him one last gaze full of hurt and anger before she grabbed Noah and Keith and went for the back door. As soon as they had turned around, Damien ran for the front of the store, trying to figure out where the newcomers were coming from and where they were in that moment.

Honestly, he had no fucking idea what to do. He might as well be running straight into his death. But if he didn't deflect inside the mall now, the raiders would certainly immediately go for the back rooms.

Damien peeked over the inner railings of the second story, trying to locate the raiders and what weapons they had. He had to make them notice him, and his first instinct was to make sounds, but there were still zombies standing around everywhere on this floor. He could escape zombies and raiders separately, but together it was just very, very dangerous. He could die here. And for a second, Damien let himself think that and felt his stomach swoop and then he decided that he would need to let the raiders see him.

So he waited.

He waited until they came upstairs on one side, saw the masses of zombies standing on the completely wrong side of the mall, started shouting about intruders and then he made a run for it as soon as their heads swiveled around in search. He ran for the opposite side of the mall, where no zombies were, and he wasn't even careful about noises this time around. Zombies were his last concern while running. He heard screaming behind him telling him to stop but he didn't even look back.

Damien wouldn't call himself the slowest runner, he certainly wouldn't deny there are a lot more people that can be quicker than him. It didn't surprise him how quickly the newcomers were catching up to him, but it certainly didn't make his life easier either. It also didn't help that he knew nothing about this mall except for the few times he swept his eyes over the whole outlay. At least he hadn't heard a gun cocking yet so that was a plus.

At the end of the mall, Damien had to take the chance and fling himself around the corner with his arm on the railing, jump over it and onto the escalator to get some extra space back between him and his pursuers. It sadly didn't give him as much as he hoped for the risk he took, so he did it again as soon as he was far enough down the steps to jump down safely, halfway flinging himself to the backside of the escalators.

When he got upright again, he immediately stared into the face of a shocked young woman with a crossbow in her hands that leant against her shoulder, immediately stammering some word fragments, clearly overwhelmed with having Damien not even a meter in front of her. For a split second Damien thought to exploit her surprise and take her ransom to buy some time for himself but he couldn't get himself to do that. He felt his breath leave his body as he accepted the defeat, waiting for the pursuers to catch up to them.

"Uh, I - I got him!", the woman called out when she finally remembered to point her bow at him, she couldn't sound more unsure of herself, "I got, I got him, he, uh, he surrendered."

Damien lifted his arms up above his head, sighing deeply and internally apologizing to his group for fucking up. He heard the other raiders come to a halt behind him, funnily enough they were all way out of breath and coughing and grunting for air. For a few seconds Damien had time to look around behind the escalators, and behind the young woman, he saw the heavy metal door that they probably heard before.

"Well done, Kelly. Proud of you.", Damien heard from behind him, probably a scruffy older man, and he didn't really know what to think in that moment. He just blanked completely, he didn't know what would happen next.

"Turn around, boy."

With his arms still up, Damien slowly started to turn around. He didn't concern himself with the crossbow now to his back, because he was pretty sure Kelly wouldn't dare pull the trigger, not even on accident. Into his sight came three men and one more woman, as expected one older man but to his surprise the other three were about his age. They all had machetes strapped somewhere on their bodies and the older man had an additional sports bow in his arms, loosely pointed at Damien.

"Tell us, why should we not kill you right here on the spot?"

Damien scrunched his face up, a little confused. The few times he and the others met other survivors on their trips the first thing they said was always "Who are you?" or "Don't make me kill you!" but this was unusual. Sure, it wasn't really friendly either, but the tone the older man had said it in wasn't really threatening either, rather neutral and curious. So after a few seconds, Damien trusted his gut and tried for his life.

"Well, uh. I outran you for the most part of that chase and would've had enough time to overpower this fine lady behind me if I wanted to? Uh. I also outsmarted all your zombie traps and almost got away with it?"

Damien really wasn't sure what the guy wanted to hear, but he hoped that what he had said would at least not get him killed for now. He could've begged and pleaded to not get killed but that wasn't really a reason. He sure hoped his bluffs would be enough for now.

The old man hummed long and deep and stepped in front of him, giving him a thorough onceover, apparently thinking something over in his head. So up close, Damien would guess he was a former war veteran or something similar. He looked hard and aged in the face, and with a bandana around his forehead he would've looked a little like Rambo. He certainly already had the ruthless killer mode on point.

"Well, boy", Rambo began, speaking a little lower than before, "Where is your loot from the shops? I don't see any bags on you. I didn't see any bags lying around in the shops either when we passed them. Or did you just come here to mess with our traps, not one useful thing on you? You're not that dumb, are you?"

Damien knew it was getting dangerous, this man was smart and had certainly already looked through at least half his plan. He had to bluff his way through this to save his ass from a swift death. Pulling an excuse for no bags out of his ass wasn't a good idea, he had to somehow change the topic and lie about something else, something more believable.

"Well, maybe I just really wanted to show off my skills so that I could get into your group?"

Damien ended with a little shrug in his shoulders and hoped for the fucking best that his acting skills would save his life. The little cocky smart boy was a better tactic than to make up some stupid story about the rest of his group. In his new identity he had been alone since then and was tired of it. It had to do the trick until he could safely escape and get back to the others.

Rambo leaned a bit back where he stood and crossed his arms above his stomach. He eyed him suspiciously. "Uh-huh? And why would you not just come to our base and ask us like any other sane man?"

Damien put on a big shit-eating grin. So far he wasn't dead yet, which was a win in his books. His group must've had enough time to get far enough away from the mall too by now. Everything else was a matter of time and acting.

"Do I _look_ like a sane man?"

For a good half a minute it was silent between them, Damien kept a slight grin going while Rambo studied him intently. In those thirty seconds Damien's mind jumped between the two options: life and death. Either Rambo believed his spiel and would offer him a place in his group or he would not and kill him off immediately.

"What's your name, boy?"

Luck was on Damien's side this time.

"Damien. Nice to meet you!"

**Author's Note:**

> me: I love minimal writing and worldbuilding!
> 
> also me: ((WORLDBUILDING INTENSIFIES))


End file.
